While advertising was once limited to a few advertising medium, the development of more numerous and more capable portable devices has generated many new advertising medium. For example, mobile telephones, portable gaming devices, video game consoles, portable media devices, portable digital assistants (PDAs), handheld computer systems, etc. are now capable of rendering audio and/or video content. As such, advertisements may now be presented as part of a mobile television broadcast, bundled with videos and other content, and even placed within an application.
Despite the advertising opportunities that the new medium present, many businesses are hesitant to invest given the lack of information about advertising on portable devices. For example, little is known about the number of advertisements reaching consumers and the effect of those advertisements on the consumer. Further, little is known about which advertising medium is best-suited to a given consumer profile, as well as how to best utilize a specific advertising medium to reach a consumer with the given consumer profile.
Conventional methods used to gather information about advertising on portable devices include surveying users of portable devices about presented advertisements. Surveying often produces inaccurate and incomplete information given the inability for a consumer to recall information about specific advertisements, information related to the presentation of the advertisement (e.g., time and location of the presentation, etc.), and the like. Additionally, it is difficult to assemble a panel of survey participants large and/or diverse enough to represent various cross-sections of society. Further, collection of survey information is tedious, time consuming, and expensive.